Unisa 2008 Research Report - University of South Africa

P R O F E S S I O N A L A N D
A D M I N I S T R AT I V E
R E S E A R C H G R O U P |
PA R G
The Professional and Administrative Research
Group (PARG), a unique body in the South
African higher education, was launched in
March 2008. A Research and Development Policy
for PARG was developed and presented to
the Senate Research Committee and the Management
Committee. It was approved and referred
to the Institutional Forum.
2008 also saw the appointment of the first two
academic associates in PARG with the Senex
approval of Prof. CR Walton as professor
extraordinarius and Dr k Devroop as a research
fellow.
Another first was that a non-academic, Dr Paul
Prinsloo of the Institute for Curriculum and
learning Development, was awarded the
Chancellor’s Prize for Excellence in Research in
recognition of his consistently high research
output.
PARG members contributed three chapters in
books for specialists, two peer reviewed papers
were presented at professional conferences,
four articles were accepted for publication in
accredited journals and 34 conference papers
were presented.
Dr At van Schoor
Chairperson of PARG
U N I S A L I b R A R Y
infoRmation ResouRces
With more than 2,4 million items, the Unisa
library is the largest and best-endowed academic
library in sub-Sahara Africa. Its information
resources include:
• 1 632 819 million books
• 4 0327 print periodical titles
• 44 000 electronic periodical titles
• 270 publishers, bibliographic and reference
databases
• 10 000 electronic books
• 17 000 electronic reserves
• 350 664 audiovisual items
• 743,9 linear metres archival materials.
collections
A researcher’s paradise, the library has a number
of unique archival and book collections, including:
• The United Party Archives, of which Unisa
has been the custodian since 1969
• The Documentation Centre for African
Studies
• The Hesse Collection of German Africana
• The Junod Archives
• The Manuscript Collections consisting of
papers of individuals and organisations
• SAlA (South African library Association)
recordes 1930–1980
• SAIlIS (South African Institute for library
and Information Science) records 1981–
1998
• lIASA (library and Information Association
of South Africa) records 1998–present
• The kenneth S Birch Archives
• The Special Collection, consisting of books
published before 1800, as well as valuable or
rare publications and private press books
• The WA Joubert Collection of old legal
sources, which comprises legal sources
published before 1850, reprints and facsimiles
of Roman Dutch legal sources, and
special editions
• The Frederick Wagener & Jl van Schaik
Africana Collections, covering the development
of southern Africa since the 17th century
• The Desmond T Cole Collection of publications
on African languages.
impRoving ReseaRch
seRvices
The library implemented the following four
professional teams in 2008 in order to improve
research services:
• Personal librarians as research partners
• Collection developers with focus on building
excellent collections
• Search librarians in support of information
services to remote researchers
• Archivists to provide archival assistance to
researchers.
ReseaRch suppoRt
developments
Recent library developments in support of
research include:
• The library’s growing collection of digital
materials, such as the CM Doke Collection of
personal letters from Mk Gandhi and a selection
from the Arthur nortje Papers, supports
online research
• The UnisaETD is a site providing full electronic
access to recent Unisa theses and dissertations.
• The digital collection of the art in the Unisa
Art Gallery
• AirPAC, which provides access to the library
catalogue items via web-enabled mobile
phones that allows clients to search for library
materials and to request and renew library
materials
• The Unisa Institutional Repository, a database
of research outputs produced by the University
Dr Buhle Mbambo-Thata
Executive Director of the Unisa Library
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